Fiber laser systems have rapidly increased in power output due to progress in high-brightness semiconductor diode pumps and the emergence of large-mode area fibers. Large-mode area fibers facilitate the achievement of high powers by reducing the detrimental effects of non-linear interactions in a fiber core, by reducing fiber susceptibility to optical damage, and by allowing larger cladding sizes of double-clad fibers.
As a result, fiber lasers have become the most powerful solid-state laser technology to date, capable of providing diffraction-limited powers nearly two orders of magnitude larger are available from the conventional solid-state lasers. The rise of fiber laser technology is even more significant due to the practical nature of fiber lasers. Indeed, fiber lasers offer a technological platform for monolithic, compact and very efficient lasers, which may be produced in a fashion similar to building electronic instruments, and very different from complex and skill-demanding assembly processes typically required for conventional open-cavity lasers. Therefore, there exists the potential of replacing the majority of currently used conventional solid-state lasers with much more compact, reliable, efficient and cost effective fiber lasers, thus significantly advancing the majority of laser applications.
Currently there are three techniques that enable use of large-mode-area (LMA) fibers: (i) single-mode excitation of a multimode core, (ii) distributed mode filtering in a properly coiled fiber and (iii) photonic-crystal large-mode fibers. All three techniques have approximately similar limits for the maximum allowable mode size, despite the fact that techniques (i) and (ii) both use multimode-core fibers while (iii) is distinctly different in that it uses a single-mode core fiber.
However, the current methods of mode-size scaling are very limited in many important practical aspects. First, mode size is limited, thus restricting further power and energy scaling. Second, use of large-core fibers is practically limited by their multimode nature. Third, direct fiber splicing is not achievable and conventional fused single-mode devices are not possible. Thus, further practical advances of fiber laser technology are hindered because fiber laser fabrication is significantly more complicated when compared to single-mode telecom-style devices.
Accordingly, there is a need for a fiber design that significantly increases the mode sizes and provides large-mode fibers with an effectively single-mode core. Preferably, such a fiber design would also permit the use of standard single-mode fiber splicing techniques. Additionally, such a fiber design would preferably be applicable to index-guiding fibers and photonic-crystal fibers. Further, the fiber design preferably would not be sensitive to bending effects for large-mode field diameters. This would enable the modal properties of the fiber to be determined by the structure rather than by the coiling. Finally, such a fiber design preferably would not require complicated mode filtering and excitation techniques so that the fiber might be used for both passive fibers and amplifying fibers.